An afternoon in Arundel

If you’re ever in need of an afternoon escape, pay a visit to Arundel Castle – or more importantly, its gardens.

Gravelled paths act as noisy guides as you walk towards the castle’s majestic gardens, which await you far from the towering building itself.

Approach the entwined iron gate entrance and you’ll soon start to feel like you’re stumbled into an ancient fairytale speckled with sprawling vines and symmetrical hedges. And as you explore the Eden waiting behind the doors itself, it’s difficult not to be a little mesmerised by the natural beauty before you.

Maybe it’s the fountains, positioned carefully like dinner party centre pieces. Or, perhaps it’s the painstakingly perfect sculpted plants – kept neatly in place like celebrity hairstyles. There’s just something about the rows of green and accompanying soundtrack of faint running water that transports you away from everyday life.

It’s calming to walk through, even when teeming with tourists. It’s calming to sit on a bench within the maze and just breathe for a while, without thinking – more importantly, without over thinking. Just take it all in. Absorb it.

My favourite part of the garden is the fact it’s a tad secluded from the external world and town. You wouldn’t know it’s there if you walked along the pavement outside its walls. It’s secret… which inevitably makes it special.

I suppose Sussex will always feel like home to me, even though moving to London becomes more inevitable by the day. It’s places like Arundel Castle’s disguised garden that make it my own personal hiding place. Even when I feel like I’ve outgrown Sussex, I still look forward to waking up in the middle of nowhere on the weekends. For now.